The Time of the Universe
by Kat Herondale
Summary: Rose had traveled the universe, learning it's secrets with her Doctor by her side. Now she was home and he's dead. She barely blinks twice when she brings Loki in from the cold, wet rain of London. Naturally, that plunges her into a whole new adventure when Loki tells her about the Infinity Stones. Then Nat and Clint break into her flat and the Avengers have to get involved.
1. Chapter 1

_**The Time of The Universe**_

Rose Tyler silently entered her flat, barely managing to lock the door behind her as she tiredly made her way into the kitchen. She smelled the chili from a few days ago, Loki must have been reheating left-overs, something Rose hated, but dealt with like any other person. He glanced up at her, the corner of his mouth twitched up as he took in her disheveled form. She was certain her eye make-up was smeared in at least two different places from her rubbing her eyes, desperately trying to stay awake at work, her hair was probably in worse condition, not that Rose really cared, she just had to remain presentable, what with being the owner's daughter and all.

"Long day at work, I'm assuming." Loki asked, amused. That jerk. Rose could have reached over and smacked him, too bad she knew better than to do that, what with Asgardian/Frost Giant's bones being a lot harder to break than Humans. Rose figured she'd break her hand if he didn't move his head away to soften the blow.

"Yeah." She muttered, deciding that she was too tired to deal with him tonight. She knew if she didn't go to sleep soon she'd have to deal with that nasty chili he made. Loki had decided to take up a hobby when he began living with Rose, fresh off faking his death during the events with the Dark Elves, Loki deemed cooking a Midgardian worthy skill. Unfortunately for Rose, he didn't understand how to simply follow a recipe, he stated that he had been alive longer than any of these "stupid Midgardians" and therefore knew how things like this should go.

"It's a good thing I babysat Tony today. I wouldn't have been able to deal with Rex." Loki said, taking a ladle and dishing out the chili into two bowls. Rose's stomach practically flipped at the horrible smell, she was glad Loki's back was turned and couldn't see her wrinkle her nose in disgust. Rose glanced around, looking to see if her little brother was still here. There wasn't a glimpse of that tuft of blonde hair Tony had anywhere. She turned back to Loki, feeling slightly disappointed, if there was anyone who could have possible made Rose feel better it was Tony, not Loki and that chili he was currently handing to her.

"Yeah?" Rose agreed, taking a few spoonfuls of soup to appease Loki. She didn't want to upset him, she couldn't handle anymore of his moppin' around the flat.

Loki took a sip and frowned at it, setting it on the counter. "That doesn't taste right."

Rose nodded in agreement, taking that as an opportunity to set it down on the counter. She yawned, loud and fake. She smiled at Loki and went to lay on the couch, leaving him to figure out what was wrong with his stupid chili.

She stared up at the glass screen, something her Doctor, the Meta Crisis one, installed before he died. It would show Rose the universe and what was happening on various planets when the Tardis was unusable. Rose stared up at it, watching different species at a market place on Xander. A place Rose had only visited one, something her Doctor had said didn't exist in their original universe. He made it sound like Xander was the Gallifery of this universe. Xander wasn't as advanced as Gallifrey, but was anything? Rose fell asleep while watching a man storm around Xander angrily, a piece of metal following him.

* * *

><p>Rope was wrapped around her, digging into her arms, rubbing against her ankles. She managed to keep her breathing slow and open her eyes slightly. Rose was now thankful for the forty hours of mandatory Torchwood Agent training. There were two figures, talking quietly. Loki was sitting across from Rose at the kitchen table, he was also bound, though his restraints seemed to be a lot tighter. He glanced at Rose, his eyes grim as they flickered back to the figures. The lighting was dim in the kitchen but Rose could make out that there was a man and woman. The man had a bow in his hand and a quiver strapped across his back. The woman had red hair, the lighting was just strong enough to make that out. It seemed an unnatural shade of red, something one could only get out of a box, the only person who had that hair color naturally was Natalia Romanova, someone the Doctor and her had met when they took a trip to Russia in 1971, not one of their best ideas. The man with the bow must have been Clint Barton, the guy Loki had basically possessed during that New York stunt three years back.<p>

"Ms. Tyler, all our intel said you would be out of the apartment at this point. Sorry you got messed up in this. Thought Loki had the stone taken away from him so he couldn't use that mind control bullshit anymore." Clint said, he turned, aimed an arrow at Loki's head. Rose frowned, she couldn't let him die, they had lived together for two years, she had helped heal Loki from the torture Thanos had caused. Clint didn't know about Thanos, who was still out there. Odds were that Clint would be a target, Thanos would want to know how the Stone effected him. Clint would become a guinea pig.

"Agent Tyler." Rose corrected, causing Clint to slightly lower his bow. "I thought you spies had a shred of dignity. Tying up a man and executing him for something he didn't have control over. Do you think you were the only one effected by the Mind Gem?"

"Mind Gem?" echoed Natalia, speaking up for the first time, she ignored the look of annoyance Clint directed at her. Natalia moved towards Rose, kneeling down so she was at eye level. "I believe either you or Loki should explain."

Loki shook his head desperately at Rose. She glanced away, her eyes scanning the room, trying to find her sonic screwdriver, something inherited from her Doctor. It was on the counter, closer to Loki than her. Clint shook his head as if trying to clear his thoughts. He lowered his bow, pointing the arrow at Loki's foot rather than his face. Progress.

"I'd rather not." Loki said after at least five minutes of silence. In a swift motion Natalia had pulled out a knife and pressed it against Rose's throat.

"Clint and I are here because someone told us that you were simply vacationing in London. Had pictures of you with a blonde kid, they thought you were kidnapping him, panicked and called Maria. We rushed over from Manhattan, Stark was using his private jet, we had to buy tickets from one of the passengers. The trip from New York to London will always be hell. You tortured Clint, Loki, using him as a pawn in your game. We've been trying to help him recover from what you did. You've put us through more than enough. I think we deserve answers."

"We're all just pawns in Thanos' plan, since you want to know so badly. You would have been safer not knowing of course." Loki chewed at his bottom lip, glancing up at the ceiling. He had been sworn not to tell anyone anything about Thanos, under the threat that one of his children would come after Loki, bringing him back and leaving him in Thanos' hands. Dying was the least of one's worries around Thanos.

"Thanos? Who's that?" Clint demanded, releasing the tension on his string, setting the arrow back in his quiver.

"Ask Thor." Loki turned his head away, staring at the fridge.

"Why don't you, Loki?" Natalia asked, moving to cut Rose free of her restraints. "Agent Tyler will be coming along with us, just to make sure you don't try anything. You seem to care about her." The last alien who cared about Rose left her here, she didn't want to know what would happen with the next one. Natalia yanked Rose from the chair, the knife still pressed against her throat. Rose remembered that Natalia had been in Red Room when they –her Doctor and her- encountered her, she was trying to break free of her programming. She had told Rose something if she turned on them, her weak spot, a place Red Room programmed in, they made one area of tissue more sensitive than the others was beyond Rose. She used this to her advantage, she swung up and hit the neck right underneath Natalia's jaw to the right side. Natalia fell back on her heels, dropping the knife and placing both her hands on her jaw. Her eyes were wide, calculating.

Rose reached down and grabbed the knife, realizing how screwed she was, perhaps if she simply stayed in the chair and allowed Natalia to lead her to wherever she would have been able to escape, but Rose figured, why not wait. She glanced at Barton, he had the arrow aimed back at Loki's face. Natalia would be up again in a moment, knowing and blocking her weak spot. And then Clint stopped breathing, frozen in place, his chest was definitely not moving. Natalia wasn't moving either, balanced awkwardly on her feet as if she had been moving to stand. Rose moved forwards, sawing at Loki's rope with Natalia's knife. He wasn't moving either, though his expression seemed almost proud of Rose, it was frozen there, usually an emotion like that would flicker across Loki's face, so whatever had paused everyone had done it in an instant, it wasn't something collectively building up to this. She moved to the counter, brushing the rope remains off him, from this angle she could see a blue bruise forming under his eye, Natalia or Clint must have hit him with the back of a knife or a bow. Rose snatched the sonic screwdriver and physic paper off the counter, shoving the latter into her pocket, while holding the sonic like a weapon.

She slowly moved towards the kitchen, grabbing bananas from the kitchen, she wasn't sure how much time she had until they started moving again. She could run off, abandon Loki, but that was never going to happen. Rose carefully plied the arrow off Clint's string, she replaced it with a banner, balancing it on his hand, she decided not to replace his other arrows, figuring she didn't want to piss the pair of them off too much. She moved towards Natalia, who had been perparing to pull a gun, she pried it from Natalia's hands, replacing it with the banana. Finally she moved back to the spot she had originally been standing, tucking the knife away, she brandished the screwdriver, aiming it at Natalia.

"Okay then..." Rose said. Everything sprung back to life. Natalia lunged forwards, the Widow's bites sparked for a moment before the Sonic disabled them. That barely seemed to disrupt Natalia,who tackled Rose, bringing them both on the floor. She wrapped both hands around Rose's neck. Loose enough to allow her to breathe slightly, just enough to disable. Rose struggled, kicking up at Natalia, trying to get her off. After a what seemed like a life time, Loki was thrown on the floor next to Rose. The corners of her vision were starting to go black when Natalia released her grip. Rose sucked in a breath, wondering if this is what it felt like to be a fish out of water.

She turned her head to see Loki staring at her, his eyes wide, the rest of his face had the signs of bruises forming. Everything that wasn't covered in his forest green t-shirt and jeans seemed to be forming bruises. That hadn't happened before to him, it didn't make sense until Clint dropped his broken bow on the ground, huffing slightly, he seemed to be looking a lot better than Loki, making it seem like he had just taken Clint's beating. Natalia helped Rose up. She frowned at Rose before picking Loki up off the ground. She glared at Clint, lifting her hands in the air and signing something at him. Rose never had the chance to learn it, and it wasn't something the Tardis translated, which made Rose want to learn it more.

"Are you okay?" Loki whispered, lightly brushing his fingers against her throat.

"_Yeah_," she tried to say, but it came out hoarse, she could barely hear herself say anything. Loki's eyes filled with fury for a moment before becoming dull. Natalia turned back towards them, her eyebrows flicking upwards.

"We're going to Dr. Foster's apartment." Natalia said. Clint joined her, wrapping handcuffs around Loki's wrists, not bothering to look at Rose.

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><p><strong>Author's notes: I have about 9,000 words of this written so far, should I keep going or just leave it? This will also be a crossover with Guardians of the Galaxy. Please let me know, otherwise I don't know if I'll post anymore on this website. once i have a little more written the fully revised and possibly beta'd version will be posed on ao3.<strong>

**and if you have any requests on something you'd like to see in this story, i will try to add it. Or if you have any comments or notice any errors.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

It was a long walk to get to Dr. Foster's flat. Even more so when Clint and Natalia made them weave through dark alleys. Rose caught sight of Jake's, from Torchwood, flat. The lights were all off, which made Rose wonder what time it was. Jake didn't typically sleep until three A.M. Natalia shoved Rose forwards, her hands were free, Natalia had determined that Rose wasn't a threat, sure she had gotten the upper hand at one point, but the pair had easily regained control, something that worried Natalia. Rose could tell by the way Natalia's eyes were flicking around them, her eyes always paused to make sure Rose was doing nothing with her hands. Clint on the otherhand had been rough with Loki, allowing him to bang into garbage bins and trip over holes. Rose knew Loki was faking the bruises at this point, she had thought about it, and no matter how broken Clint's bow was, Loki is fine. They went under a street lamp for a moment, and Rose knew exactly where they were. She could find her way back to the flat in five minutes flat. Loki's eyes stayed carefully blank as he surveyed the area. Natalia was shoving her up stairs then. Clint was practically yanking Loki up three steps at a time, pulling him upwards when he was about to fall.

"Knock it off, Clint. What will Thor think when he sees what you did to his brother?" Natalia snapped, brushing red hair out of her eyes. Natalia's hair was short and curly, much different than the long hair and bangs she had during Red Room. Loki coughed and Rose's head shot up, her eyes widening, she recognized this place and the flat they were entering, this was a Torchwood safe house. She could contact Rex, despite how much Rose and Loki disliked him. Natalia easily picked the lock. She pushed the door open, letting Rose and then Loki enter first.

* * *

><p>Thor was snoring on the couch, Rose could tell by the back of his blonde head and Mjolnir sitting on the table, someone was leaning against him, she couldn't tell who. And then there was Captain America standing in front of the couch, blocking any other heads. He had this disproving look on his face Rose had never seen in the pictures she had found when googling him after he came off the ice, the headline: <em>Man Out of Time<em>, _has Captain America been found? _had caught Rose's attention. There was no Captain America in her universe, expect for maybe the odd comic back in the forties that had never taken off. Mickey mentioned those once when they were younger.

"What do you think you're doing?" The Captain demanded. "Taking off like that in the middle of the day. Tony had to cancel his business trip and fly everyone else down here. No note, no message with JARVIS, no nothing. I am beyond mad." At some point in his spill, Captain America had thrown his hands into the air, turning away from the spies and muttering angrily. Loki looked at Rose, the TV in the background brightly flashing at that moment so Rose could see his grin. Was it wrong to say Rose was more than a little excited to see what was about to happen, she missed this, the running, the fighting, everything if she was being honest with herself. Torchwood could only do so much for her, and hopefully this wouldn't require paperwork.

Clint opened and closed his mouth, floundering for a reply. Natalia seemed calmer, simply shoving past Rose to speak with the Captain. After a while Captain America moved towards Rose, extending his hand.

"Captain Steve Rogers, Miss..?" Steve waited for Rose to reply, say something but she couldn't force the words out, her throat hurt too bad. She made a choking motion with her hands around her neck, her eyes on Natalia as she did this. Steve straightened his back, Rose had realized he seemed to be making himself be smaller as he talked with her. He spun around to Natalia, glaring at her.

"I believe I can heal her, if you take these off." Loki said, rattling the cuffs. Rose knew he was trying to be difficult. Those handcuffs were something Loki could simply make disappear with his magic. Steve pointedly looked at Clint, who groaned quite loudly, causing one of the heads on the couch to pop up. He undid the handcuffs, not bothering about being gentle. Loki smiled at him, something that had scared Rose the first time he did it around her. He moved towards Rose, placing both hands on her neck. He stared into her eyes, taking a deep breath. The burning in her neck began to cool, even more so in the spots his fingers touched. Loki had always been just slightly too cold. He closed his eyes, focusing on Rose, by the way he frowned, she knew something was off. Loki removed his hands, the bruises on his own skin fading away, he would pretend the spell was too strong and had healed him as well. But the effort of the magic had drained him, he had said before to her that if he didn't practice magic everyday it would fade away over time, never quite be as strong. Rose assumed he would do simple tricks at home while babysitting Tony, but apparently not.

"Rose Tyler," She said as she turned away from Loki. completely missing the fact that Loki was still staring at her. He dropped his hands and faced Clint, raising them in the air as a sign of surrender. Steve smiled charmingly at her, shaking her hand before turning back to Natalia, obviously yelling at her.

"Rose!" Someone shouted so loudly that Thor stopped snoring, his hand reaching out to grab his hammer. He whipped around, the blanket and whoever was sleeping on him falling off. He stood there, his mouth agape, staring at Loki, Thor was naked. Rose froze, she surprisingly had never seen a naked alien before, her dead husband didn't count, he was human. The girl shooting past Thor barely stopped to stare, instead rushing over and lifting Rose into a hug.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming over?" she demanded. Rose realized this was Darcy, one of the few Americans she knew. Darcy Lewis had worked with Torchwood as an intern for a few months, but not before latching on to Rose, thinking she was the coolest thing. Rose showed her around London and had, on behalf of Torchwood, given her this flat to use, on the condition that she helps out any Torchwood agent that comes along. Then Darcy left Torchwood, saying she found another '_really cool job_' in the states. Apparently the really cool job had led her back to this flat.

"I hadn't planned on stopping by. I thought you were still in New Mexico. That's when you last texted."

"My iPod got stolen by Shield! And then I lost all my contacts after they gave it back and Jane dropped my phone in a cup of coffee." Darcy glared at Jane while she said this, even though her voice was full of humor. Jane must have been the woman standing next to Thor, her face bright red as she shoved clothes at him, desperately trying to get him to cover up. Next to them was someone Rose thought was Tony Stark, he was saying something to Steve, his mouth quite close to his friend's ear.

"Yeah?" Rose said, she was tired, pretty sure her chili had been drugged by Natalia and Clint, and just wanted to go home and sleep it off, the adrenaline from earlier was already wearing off. Darcy shifted her weight excitedly, brushing a mess of brown hair from her face. The analog clock by the TV said it was five A.M. Rose was definitely too tired to deal with this. Darcy pulled Rose towards Jane, it was just then she realized that Dr. Jane Foster was the scientist Rose had been meaning to visit and offer a job as soon as they figured out where she was currently living. Darcy never mentioned either of them had moved back here. Rose hoped Torchwood wouldn't mind.

"Hi," Jane said, she had smiled at Rose, though it faded when her eyes landed on Loki. "What is he doing in my apartment?" She moved towards Loki before Rose could stop her. She put both hands on her chest and pushed him against the wall, rattling the china cabinet next to him. Loki groaned, more of annoyance than of pain. Thor moved towards Loki, he had only bothered to put on a pair of jeans, a look of concern on his face.

"We thought you dead. Again." Thor hissed. Side by side in these human clothes, they could easily be passed off as regular humans, someone people would barely look twice at. Perhaps that was a good thing, like the Doctor had once said, humans don't notice much easily, or at least the majority didn't.

"You didn't mourn me this time, did you Thor? Our mother is dead, she would have been the only one to care. You left me there on Svartalfheim to rot, not caring enough to bring me back to Asgard for a proper burial. I waited, Thor. I gave up and left, Odin was in Odinsleep, it would have been easy for me to take his form and pretend to be him, I could have been king. I decided to go back to Earth. It was safer for me here than on _that_ planet."

"Safer? Loki, what do you mean?" Thor stepped back, moving Jane away so Loki wouldn't feel so threatened and cornered. If Rose didn't know better, she would have thought Thor looked guilty. Before Loki could say anything Natalia stepped forwards, she wrapped her arm around Loki's back, escorting him to the set of chairs in the kitchen. Rose followed, moving the other chair and sitting as close to Loki as possible. She reached out, and grabbed his hand. She expected Loki not to take it, simply brush it away, but he grabbed it, squeezing it reassuringly. If Loki had a plan, then Rose would follow him.

"Thor, earlier he mentioned something about Thanos." Natalia reported. She moved to stand next to Clint, who was watching from a distance, just at the right angle for him to be able to read Thor and Loki's lips. But not her, they seemed to underestimate Rose, thinking Loki was their real threat. Thor's eyes widened and his face fell, he rushed towards Loki, checking him up and down, trying to see something. A few months ago Loki had told Rose that Thanos had two daughters, he modified them to become the best assassins in the universe. Thanos had told Loki that if he successfully took over Earth and brought back the Tesseract, then Loki would have had that privilege as well. One of Loki's reasons for throwing the battle of New York.

"Now you're worried for me?" Loki said, he halfheartedly shoved Thor off him. Looking at Rose for help. He then flinched, his entire body contracted, his muscles seizing up. Rose felt the eletrictiy flow through her too. She froze, her mouth opened slightly. It was a lot worse than being shocked while working on the Dimension Cannon a few years back. Thor pressed his hand against Loki's cheek, he frowned while the current faded. "It's a small chip like device on the nape of my neck." Loki told Thor.

"What just happened?" Steve asked, he grabbed his shield off the ground and strapped it to his back. Rose ignored him and brushed aside Loki's hair, trying to figure out where it was, there was a slight lump and a scar, Thanos must have left that there as a mark for him to remove it in the future, there was no way he could have been that careless. She grabbed the sonic from her pocket, scanning it. She used Loki's flinches to determine when it was disabled. All of the Avengers, sans Thor, were staring at them, confusion and shock evident on their face.

"Thanos used that to listen in whenever there was a mention of his name, to make sure I told no one. Usually I could block Thanos from listening in, but I didn't realize you were going to mention him until it was too late, I fear he has already sent Nebula." Loki whispered in Rose's ear. She frowned, the Avengers weren't going to let them run and Rose didn't want them to have to go up against Nebula. So she started talking, perhaps to buy time for whatever plan Loki had.

"'m Rose Tyler, Earth's Defender, I work with an agency that keeps alien threats at bay. The Chitauri mishap was due to SHIELD closing down all flights and not letting any of our agents to America. There's been a lot more aliens on Earth than those Chitauri. Which is surprising because Earth is a Level 5 planet and there's laws against that kind of stuff. The Chitauri really messed things up because the general population wasn't supposed to know about any of that stuff for at least another ten more years. It's really messing with the time streams."

Darcy grinned, motioning for Rose to go on. "Tell them about the Doctor." Thor stiffened at the name.

"I, uh, traveled with a Time Lord for a while, don't bother lookin' them up, they don't exist here. I saw the universe. Around a hundred different planets I think over the course of two universes. Which means 'm quite qualified to babysit Loki and make sure he doesn't cause anymore trouble. Natalia and Clint, he is under Torchwood protection, and if I see fit I could have you both arrested for injuring me, the leader of the main team in Torchwood One."

Natalia frowned, her eyebrows pinching together, she looked at Clint, signing something. Clint's eyes widened and he frowned too. Steve looked back at the spies and then at Tony, who seemed hungover. Jane moved to stand by Thor, resting a hand on his arm. This went unnoticed by all but Loki, who squeezed Rose's hand tighter, definitely trying to tell her something but she wasn't sure what. Clint coughed, the Avengers all moved into a huddle. Kinda cute, Rose supposed.

"Do you have a plan? I can't quite figure one out." Loki hissed. Perhaps Darcy heard from the way she smiled at the two of them. Then she was pulling out her phone, the flash went off, Clint's head poked up from the huddle at the flash before looking back down. Rose's eyes widened and she shook her head desperately at Darcy. Rose didn't agree with a lot of the polices Torchwood had, for example they so strictly monitored social media that if a candid picture of any of their agents was posted from Tumblr to My Space, they would delete it and probably come to the location of the shot. So Rose shook her head, hoping Darcy wouldn't post it anywhere, last thing they needed was Torchwood coming down on them. Darcy would get in serious trouble for using the apartment without telling them.

"Why did you call me Natalia?" She asked, breaking away from the huddle. Clint followed her, standing protectively behind her. Steve shook his head, grabbing Thor and Tony, heading off into the living room, talking to them about something, though he did seem to keep glancing up at the kitchen. If Loki had had a plan this would have been the perfect time to put it into motion, the Avengers were separated.

"I met you, Russia '71." Rose said, smiling at her. She had barely aged since their last encounter, a side effect of the serum they had injected her with. "I couldn't have saved you from Red Room then. It would have messed up the time lines."

"Explain what the time lines are." Natalia demanded, a knife sliding from the sleeve of her black hoodie.

"Natasha!" Steve snapped, darting towards the spies. He grabbed the knife from Natasha (Natalia? Rose wasn't sure anymore). Clint stepped back, never taking his eyes off Loki. Of course, that's when a bright light shined in the window and Rose's first thought was that it was an alien invasion. She wasn't far off. She darted towards the window, not worrying about the 'no sudden moves or they'll shoot rule', she kinda felt like this made that rule not apply. She flung it open, the Avengers crowding behind her. She looked upwards, seeing a large orange ship that was not human made. Her phone started going off, probably Rex. She answered it, trying to push her way back through the crowd. She grabbed Loki and ran.

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><p><strong>Yay! another chapter in a week! this is like amazing for me. Anyways, thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, and my awesome reviewer! it means a lot to me. See you next time and I'll try to update this as much as possible. If i don't post something at least once a week, feel free to yell at me!<strong>

**(I have at least three more chapters written, though i think one is like three times the length of my 2,000-3,000 words that i try to do chapters. so i may break that one apart. It depends how i feel.)**


	3. Chapter 3

The ship was large, orange and was just barely landing when Rose and Loki made it to the roof. The bottom of the ship opened, smoke dramatically poured out. Rose nearly groaned, this seemed more and more fake as it went along. A man stepped out, a red leather jacket billowing out behind him, a silver mask on his face, the tech was simply amazing for this time frame, Rose had to admit. Jane and Darcy ran up the stairs, the door that led to the roof slammed behind them.

"Holy shit. This is so cool." Darcy said.

Rose darted forwards, taking out her sonic and brushing Loki's arms off her. This felt too fake, almost staged, perhaps an alien had gotten access to _Netflix_ and watched too many corny movies about invasions... Rose scanned the man, who was breathing quite heavily, reminding her of Darth Vader. She nearly expected him to say, "I come in peace." She scanned him, and he stood taller, prouder.

"This is fake. He's human." Rose annouced. She then frowned, something else popped up on the scan too, something Rose didn't think existed in this universe. "Who's your parents? You're not all human."

The man made a hmph noise before pressing a button on the side of his mask, it folded together, in a way that made Rose want to suck in a breath at how beautiful this tech was, she heard someone behind her do just that. It made the man grin, taking a bow. Before something appeared behind him, a figure much smaller, and this one was laughing quite hard. From what she could make out with the fog blocking her view, it seemed like a raccoon?

"Not even two minutes and somebody already called bullshit, Quill. I told you that stupid fog machine was one thousand credits too much." He kinda sounded American. Rose had never run across a species like this before, she had a feeling, the walking, talking raccoon in clothes was created in a lab, probably one-of-a-kind.

The man, Quill, groaned. "You were supposed to call me Star Lord."

"So more things can laugh at how stupid that name is?"

"Shut up, Rocket!"

Stark laughed, which was quickly silenced by Steve elbowing him in the ribs. Poor Clint must have been having a hard time with this, the smoke was obscuring everyone's mouth and making Rose's eyes burn. Another two figures emerged from the deck, a green woman, skinny and muscular, and then something that looked a lot like a tree, Flora Colossus. She remembered visiting that planet when on the honeymoon with her Doctor, they had listened to the song that had rung out across the planet's surface, a rare occurrence that had only happened once in a billion years, and her Doctor had taken her to see the last one. The planet had died after that, no one new why. Rose hadn't realized that there was a survivor.

"Groot," Rose said, extremely happy that she got to meet him again.

Groot bowed his head, smiling at her, slightly smaller than when Rose had seen him before. "I am Groot." _It is a pleasure to see you, Ms Tyler._ Rose was more than a little ecstatic that the Tardis Translator thing was still working.

"And you." Rose was grinning, and ignoring the shocked look of Rocket. Quill nudged Rocket with his foot, causing him to jump. Rose turned back to the others. Loki looked like a trapped animal, fear in his eyes as he tried to inch his way backwards.

"Loki, I had not expected you to be on Terra." The only woman on the team spoke up, the one who had been standing next to Groot. Rose stepped backwards, trying to block Loki from her. Something about the woman worried her. She stepped towards Loki and then froze. Rose spun around, Loki had vanished. Finally, after staring at where he had stood she could see a faint outline of him. He raised a finger to his lips, his eyes flicking back and forth, he moved forwards wrapping his arms around Rose. She was pretty sure she disappeared too by the look on everyone's faces.

"I no longer work for Thanos. He is after me as well. I had a device monitoring all the chips Thanos had inserted, yours stopped working suddenly and led us to it's last known location. You were lucky I had it and not him. I believe Rocket managed to stop the signal before it went any farther. We were on our way to Pluto for their leather sale and decided to stop by."

"Pluto sells leather?" Jane asked, her eyes were lit up, despite the growing tension. Thor rested a hand on her back, trying to move her behind him, she of course had none of that. Jane grabbed Darcy and moved closer to the possible aliens. Rose craned her neck forwards, trying to peak inside the ship. She could only see shelves, not very threatening.

"How'd you get that device?" Natasha said, eyeing carefully where Loki had disappeared. Clint looked at the ship and then walked away, crossing across the gravel roof to get as far away from the ship as possible. Steve and Tony exchanged these subtle glances, ones you wouldn't notice unless you were staring right at them. Loki had told her the pair didn't get along well, that seemed to have changed. Rose had assumed they hadn't really been in contact since the Battle of New York, she didn't really pay attention to all those Avengers gossip columns that would pop up in the newspapers from time to time. Loki didn't either, he had seemed to put that all behind him.

The green woman looked at Natasha and sighed heavily. Quill nudged her, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards. "We stole it." He was practically grinning, his chest puffed out with pride.

"I am Groot." _Gamora took it from her former sister. Nebula was the one given the job of tracking down all who betrayed Thanos. I am not sure of her current whereabouts. The team tends not to tell me much, thinking I don't listen._

"I do!" Rocket protested. "I tell you lots of stuff." Groot rolled his eyes as Rocket climbed up him and sat on his shoulder. He patted Groot's head for a moment, whispering something in Groot's ear.

"Will you stop talking about me?" Quill snapped. He turned around and started whispering something to Rocket, his hands flailing around as if trying to prove a point.

"Men." Gamora muttered, shaking her head angrily. Natasha dipped her head in agreement. "Loki, we mean you or your friend no harm. You know Thanos wouldn't have hired any of my teammates. They weren't my first pick either."

Very slowly the invisibility spell faded away, leaving Loki with his arms wrapped around Rose protectively. She stepped away, brushing them off. She could handle herself. Darcy leaned forwards, whispering something in Jane's ear, she frowned, repeating whatever it was to Thor, who frowned also. He spun around and said something to Steve. Rose was beginning to wonder if they were playing telephone. Quill finally spun around, throwing his hands up in defeat and stalking over to Rose.

"How did you know I wasn't completely human? The Nova Corps only just told me that."

Rose pulled out her sonic screwdriver, flipping it in the air and grinning at him. "It scans stuff, tells you what is is, opens doors, assembles cabinets, the works."

Peter matched her grin, leaning forwards so they were the same height. Loki shifted behind Rose. She wondered if he was nervous, the only humans he had been around in some time were really only her Torchwood team and grocery shopping.

"Can I scan you to see if it works and you're not just pulling my leg?"

Rose nodded, silently handing it over. Quill grabbed it, pointing it at Gamora first, who moved his hand away from her, shaking her head. The Avengers had gathered around, moving in behind Loki, making him press himself against Rose, his hand stiff and cold on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Groot walking over, deep in conversation with Rocket. Quill pointed it at Rose, and the buzzing noise rang out on the quiet roof. The sky was beginning to lighten and Rose realized they'd have to hide the ship. Rex was working on some sort of cloaking device, he'd be thrilled to test it out. Rose doubted this ship had one, she had seen better ships in the universe, despite the impressive paint color it didn't have much else going for it at this point. Quill made a clicking noise with his tongue and then his grin vanished, he handed the screwdriver to Gamora, who raised her eyebrows as she saw the scans. Rose frowned and Loki's grip on her shoulder tightened.

"You are sure you're human?" Gamora asked. Darcy shifted next to Rose, how she had made it there, she wasn't sure.

"Yup. Just a girl from London. Maybe that's Time Vortex residue? Happens to everyone who travels in a Tardis."

Rocket's eyes widened and he made a choking noise that sounded a lot like _Tardis_.

Gamora shook her head, "This is something different. The energy levels seem like when we held the Orb. I don't understand how you could live with all that. It nearly destroyed the four of us who held it."

"You held the Power Stone, Gamora?" Loki asked, his voice strained.

Rose ignored them, mentally going through all the gems that had been found so far, there was the Tesseract, Loki had called that the Space Stone, Loki's scepter was Mind, the Aether Loki had faked his death for was Reality, and the Orb was Power, which left Time and Soul unaccounted for."

"Do you think it's possible you encountered one of the stones?" Gamora said. Rose mutely shook her head, trying to run through the possibilities of when she could have.

"Barton was under control of the Mind Stone. See if he has the same energy levels." Loki volunteered, jerking his head to where Barton was staring at them from next to the space ship. Gamora grabbed Rose's hand roughly and pulled her through the crowd towards Barton, the sonic in hand. Clint stared at them, tilting his head to the side. He glanced at Natasha, who nodded her head at him. Gamora scanned him, before shaking her head.

"These are much lower. Very faint. You could barely tell he had even been possessed by it."

"I apologize for that by the way." Loki added. Clint scoffed.

Jane rushed forwards, staring at the sonic in awe. "You can tell all that by that thing? What is it? What exactly is it's purpose? What do the energy levels of the stones signify?"

Rose frowned, and then something caught her eye from the corner in the roof, spray paint on the walls that hadn't been there before. Rose's heart nearly sank, when would she be getting a break? The wall read, _Bad Wolf_.

"Yes." Rose whispered, feeling like she had been punched in the gut. The Doctor and her never really discussed the events on Satellite 5. She asked him about it once and by the way the Doctor had closed off, only telling her that she looked into the Heart of the Tardis and saved a lot of lifes that day by doing so, the Doctor got the energy out of her by doing something, but he refused to tell her what. Which made Rose nervous. None of the details had truly made sense to Rose, she remembered a blur of shapes and colors, and the name Bad Wolf. But what if whatever the Doctor did that caused him to regenerate didn't work, get everything out. Rose needed to contact him, Thanos would come after her if the heart of the Tardis did in fact prove to be the Time Stone, she didn't want to have to worry about Tony's safety. But would the Doctor be able to help if she could contact him?

"Okay, so I'm kinda lost on what's happening right now." Darcy said, walking up to them.

"Something not good, Lady Darcy."

Jane invited whoever would fit to stay in her apartment, Gamora and co. would stay on the Milano, which apparently did have some cloaking. So they wouldn't have to call in Rex, the Jerry of their team after all to retrieve what Torchwood had been working on, allowing them to make small thing invisible. Rose was practically falling asleep as she stood in Jane's flat, waiting for her to figure out where everyone would sleep. It had been a long day for Rose, having to go into work before dusk this morning, for an invasion that was actually staged, and then having to fill out all her paperwork from the last two weeks, leaving Loki to watch Tony after his carpool group dropped him over after school, Rose always hated working so late that she missed her little brother before Jackie picked him up at seven. And then of course came the whole matter of being abducted from her flat, that made for a very stressful evening.

Jane hurried around the room. Her couch apparently reclined on both sides, leaving a small cushion in the middle. She had made a bed, with the help of Steve on both sides, saying two couples on each side if they squeezed. Jane and Thor would take their own bedroom, no one really wanted to even think about going in that room. Darcy would be sleeping with Tony and Steve, which thrilled her to no end as she dragged them off. Natasha took one look at the couch and took all the sheets off of what would have been their side and dumped on the floor, making Clint and her a nest. Jane stared at them but said nothing. Rose ignored all the commotion and was about to fall asleep when she heard Thor's voice, actually whispering.

"Brother-Loki, don't think I haven't noticed the way you look at Lady Rose. Lady Darcy claims I look at Jane the same way."

Rose heard some shuffling and the squeaking of chairs. She wondered if Clint and Natasha knew what was happening.

"Like a friend? Rose is the only person who cares for me since Mother's death."

Thor chuckled, "if that's what you choose to believe."

"The truth? That's what I believe." Loki was being defensive.

"I was never a good brother to you, always mistreating you. Midgardians tend to change your views. I realize now a lot of my flaws. I wish to make things well, Loki. If you need any help, please come to me for as, Lady Darcy says, brotherly advice."

After quite a long silence, the chairs shuffled. "Perhaps." Loki said.

Rose tried to slow down her breathing, pretending to be asleep as Loki walked over. He lightly placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Do you wish for me to sleep on this side or the other?" Loki whispered, his breath warm in Rose's ear.

"Here." She mumbled, her limbs too heavy to move. She was grateful for Loki's warmth as he curled around her.


	4. Chapter 4

**So there's a part where it looks like the paragraph repeats-ish, it's supposed to be like that. And looking back, i wish i wrote this is present tense, i personally think it's easier to read. Anyways, im about halfway through and 20,000 words in. There will be a crossover with the infernal devices and other fandoms, just say which ones you'd like to see. and if i can, ill write them. I'm getting close to about halfway through, it'll be around ten chapters at least i think, or am hoping at this point. **

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><p>Rose shot up from the couch, Loki's arms fell off her. She paused, wondering when he did that. Natasha shuffled at the movement. The clock next to the TV said it was seven A.M., it was just now she remembered they were supposed to pick Tony up at the mansion in an hour and watch him all day. Jackie would be mad if Rose didn't show, no matter how much she loved both her kids, she claimed she needed just this one Saturday off to be with Pete. The thought of what they were doing made Rose shudder. If she missed picking Tony up, even if it was something as important as what was going on right now, she would never hear the end of it from either of her parents. Maybe she could just bring Tony here, she had been meaning to bring him into work just to meet an alien. It could be fun, or if Tony said something wrong and Gamora and co. got offended then it could mean trouble. She'll go with fun.<p>

"We have to pick up Tony." Rose hissed, shaking Loki awake. He waved her away at first before he sat up and yawned quite loudly. Clint shot up, staring at them for a good two minutes as Rose tried to smooth her hair down. She would have to run back to her flat, dressed in day old clothes coming from the direction of a foreign apartment, Jimmy lived on the way back to her flat. Think of the rumor's he'd spread around Torchwood. Loki was already in action, standing up and moving to the kitchen to grab a jar of peanut butter and a spoon. He waggled his eyebrows at Clint and Natasha, who were watching him eat peanut butter out of a jar.

"Where do you think you're going?" Natasha asked, watching as Loki's clothes shifted into a dark blue shirt and Rose to a different t-shirt and jeans, her hair smoothing out. Rose grinned, her tongue poking out between her teeth.

"We'll be back in an hour. I have to pick some stuff up at my flat and my little brother." Rose said. They ran out the door before anyone said anything.

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><p>Loki was grinning as they slipped into her car. Several boxes were stashed in the back seat, containing clothes and various things from Torchwood that may be needed as well as a few games to keep Tony content. Perhaps Jane would let Tony watch TV, though she doubted he would sit still long enough to watch anything. In the middle of the boxes was Tony. He sat happily in the middle, just because a few months prior Rose realized that Tony would kick the back of Loki's seat. He would really do anything to annoy Loki, who had never yelled at him and always tried remained calm. Rose had a feeling Loki was the favorite of the two of them. She was just happy to see the two get along.<p>

"Rose, Rose!" Tony shouted excitedly, obviously just remembering something. "Ms. Pink loved the toy Tardis. Though she didn't believe you traveled the universe, that was easy to tell. But the other kids loved it and asked me all sorts of questions about the Daleks and what else they said besides, e_xterminate! _I didn't know what else so I said that's it. And then the Cybermen?! _You will be deleted!_ Everyone loved that, Annie came up asking me to do my impersonation of them again! She thought my voice sounded the coolest! And then these other two kids came up and tried to punch me... But, Ms. Pink stopped 'em and yelled at them! Her eyes got all big and wide! I thought it was funny. Max and Issac got in _big_ trouble though! Ms. Pink seems to like me more than them, which I think is awesome! Ms. Pink said that she want's to talk with you about the Tardis. She remembered the name from somewhere but it couldn't remember. Isn't that sad?"

Tony finally stopped to take a deep breath. He would bounce around a lot, Jackie had gotten him tested at one point, but that doctor just said Tony had pent up energy and would grow out of it at some point. Jackie didn't think that was promising. But Loki dealt with Tony well and managed to entertain him a lot. The one thing that Rose thought was strange was how easily he could read people, it got a little creepy at times. She considered it to be a side effect of Jackie and Pete's dimension hopping, but Rose never looked into it more, as long as Tony was happy and safe.

"Where are we going, Rose?" Tony leaned forwards, trying to peer out the window as much as he could with his car seat restraining him. Loki glanced back at him as Rose pulled into a spot. She wasn't sure what Loki said, she had been too busy trying to make sure the Milano was invisible. Thankfully it was, or they had left. Rose had wanted to at least talk with them, she hadn't come across something that looked like a raccoon that spoke before in her travels. And Quill, she wanted to know why he called himself Star Lord, which sounded a lot like Time Lord. And then of course everyone probably wanted to know why she had such high energy readings, stuff that was similar to an Infinity Stone.

Loki had been unbuckling Tony's seat belt and tossing him over his shoulder like a potato sack, something that always made Tony giggle. Tony reached out, grabbing one of the boxes on top, which just happened to be chess. Rose turned back, smiling at the two of them before she slide out, locking the doors as they went. Rose had changed when they stopped at her flat, Loki's ilsuions made them appear neat, but Rose hated the way she felt after not showering for a few days. She had braided her hair, bangs pieces falling into place, it reminded her of the hairstyle she had did when the Doctor and Jack were still around. Loki toyed with one, wrapping it around his finger as she joined them on the sidewalk. She whacked his hand away, causing Tony to grin.

They made their way into the apartment to find everyone from last night inside. Tony's face lit up when he saw Gamora, and then his mouth dropped when his eyes fell on Groot. Quill was next to Groot, talking to Rocket about something that Rose couldn't make out. Next to them was someone quite muscular and covered in something that looked like tattoos, Rose had a feeling each one meant something special to him. Gamora was at the table, eating breakfast with Natasha and Darcy. Natasha and Gamora were talking about something quite serious while Darcy simply looked bored. Her eyes lit up upon seeing Tony and she darted over and grabbed Tony off of Loki.

"Tony! I haven't seen you in forever! Do you remember Auntie Darcy?" She said, grinning and tossing the seven year old up and down in her hands. She nearly dropped him as he started squirming to be released from her grip.

"No," He said. Tony glanced back at Loki, trying to wiggle back to him. As a last restort he tried to slam the chess box over Darcy's head. Loki grabbed it before he could, and to Rose's surprise and delight, he apologized to Darcy. Stark looked up from where he was fixing a lamp in the corner of the room and complaining about something to Steve and Clint. Steve stood up and walked towards Rose and Loki while he was in mid sentence. He coughed and stopped, handing the screwdriver to Clint and following Steve. Clint groaned and jerked his hand back as the lamp sparked.

"He's your kid?" Stark asked bluntly. He moved past Steve to get a better look at Tony Tyler. He ruffled Tony's hair, which caused him to bat away Stark's hand.

"No. My name's Tony Tyler. Rose's my sister. Our parents are at the mansion having fun without me. But that's okay because Loki is going to play chess with me."

Stark blinked in surprise. "Do you know who I am?"

Tony was straining his neck to see past Stark, not really paying attention anymore. He was trying to get a look at Groot, who was smiling at him. "I don't really care."

"My name's Tony Stark." He said, plowing through and giving him a reward winning smile.

"That's my name. Pick another one." Tony said. He managed to squirm out of Loki's arms and drop to the floor, ignoring the laughter from Steve and Loki, to go meet Groot. Stark watched him interacte with Groot for a good two minutes until he turned back to Steve and started laughing. Rose looked at Loki, somewhat embarsed that her little brother just insulted a billionaire, she knew that when Tony got home he would tell Pete, and he would be proud of Tony, because Pete Tyler hated how Stark would get into all the papers with his publicity stunts. If Jackie wasn't as stubborn the kid would have been named Charlie or something.

"Truthfully, I didn't think you were coming back." Steve said. He still managed to smile and play it off like it didn't matter how rude it was, he was just rusty with his manners. Rose decided she liked him best of the Avengers, he didn't seem as murderous as Natasha and Clint could be. And Rose, like a lot of other people felt bad for him, even if the Tardis was still working, she wouldn't have been able to take him back, him being unfrozen was a set point in time, he had to help out with the Avengers, otherwise they probably wouldn't have won.

"Thank you, Captain." Loki replied, dryly. He moves on to go check on Tony, who was happily playing with Groot. Rocket had paused, asking Loki something that Rose couldn't make out. So she looked back at Steve and Stark, and grinned at them. The pair exchanged a glance before Steve looked like he was about to say when Gamora strolled over, playing with one of Natasha's knifes. She tossed it in the air, and watched Stark's eyes follow the knife. She smirked at him before turning to Rose.

"I'd like to speak with you, Rose." Gamora flicked a piece of hair from her face before slipping the knife into on of the holsters on her pants. Her eyes landed on Stark and Steve. "Alone."

Gamora grabbed Rose's arm and then glanced over at where Loki was kneeling next to Tony, telling him, Rocket, and Groot something. Quill was behind them, silently grinning at whatever Loki was saying that made the others appear grim. Stark and Steve walked back to the lamp. Nether of the girls missed the glances the pair gave them. Gamora stared at the kitchen table, obviously deciding where to go before making a beeline to the small balcony, closing the glass door behind them.

"Everything on this planet is so fragile." Gamora started off. She didn't make eye contact with Rose, she stared at the cars moving along on the road several floors below them. "I could toss this knife down, and at the right angle it could easily kill one of these Terrans. They don't have the right materials. I don't understand why Thanos would want this planet, it's too easy for taking."

"Earth gets invaded a lot. The excuses are resources and humans are easy to control. There are four different blood types and I've seen people get controlled by that before. They consider the planet easy. Where I'm from, things are different. There was never any mention of the Avengers or what you guys call yourself, simply someone called the Doctor. I, uh, traveled with him for a while, helping him save the universe. I've never heard anything about the Infinity Stones. Loki's the closest link I have to one."

"They call us the Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter asked me to try and figure it out, which is understandable, I know much more about this than him. Did you ever run across anything strange? Quill and I discussed this last night, perhaps you are the reason Thanos wants this planet so much? The Infinity Stone energy could perhaps be used to track down the final two."

Rose looked at Gamora, who was steadily _not_ looking at her, instead, silently counting the cars that drive by. "What else is there?" Rose asked, glancing back at the living room through the glass door, Loki was staring at them but looked away quickly, his eyes flicking back towards Tony and Drax, who had appeared next to Tony as Rose looked over. Drax glanced up at Rose and she looked back at Gamora.

"One time I looked into the Heart of the Tardis... I don't know much about what happened during those five minutes before he got it out." That seemed to intrigue Gamora, causing her to look up and practically stare Rose down. Loki had told her that Gamora and Nebula were assassins, not spies, they weren't trained on reacting to emotion of different species, they were supposed to kill their target and then witnesses, only one or two had every made it away, spreading the rumors about Gamora and Nebula.

"Who is this he you speak of?" Gamora leaned forwards, over the balcony peering down at something. Rose squinted, unable to see anything but the blurs of figures hurrying across the sidewalks.

"The Doctor. He's a Time Lord." Rose said. Gamora stepped backwards, her eyes were wide, her mouth dropped open. She leaned back against the railing.

"They're the creatures frozen in space on the planet Gallifrey hidden in the corner of our universe. No one's been able to solve how or why. Thanos seemed worried of the planet. He thinks they're warriors waiting for the right moment to strike against everything he's accomplished. Are they?"

Rose seriously had no idea what Gamora meant, the Gallifrey Rose had only briefly heard the Doctor mention the Time War in passing, saying he had destroyed his home planet. Of course the Doctor had been wrong in the past? But he should be certain if he committed genocide. Rose hoped. She decided that she would go check it out, of course she had to figure out a way to travel there. She went through her limited amount of options, there was the Bifrost, if someone could jolt her dying Tardis back to life or maybe even something like what the Guardians came here on.

"You want to visit there?" Gamora asked. "Do you think there's anyway your Doctor could help us?"

The door swung open, saving Rose from having to answer. Jane poked her head out, Thor was behind her, his arms full of plastic bags. He grinned, his flannel shirt falling down his arms, revealing bare skin underneath. Gamora turned around and made a quick face at Rose before she faced Jane. She tilted her head, smiling at Jane.

Everyone had organized themselves into a circle around the coffee table. Loki was sitting on the couch with Tony on his lap, there was just enough room for Rose to squeeze in next to him with Quill on the other side of her. Groot was standing behind the couch, one of his branches resting behind where Rocket was sitting, Drax stood next to Groot. The Avengers had either pulled up chairs (Natasha) or were sitting on the floor (Clint). Steve was perched on the table, obviously deciding he was the leader as he ate from his to-go container. Loki juggled two in one hand, and happily gave Rose his extra one as she sat down next to him. She couldn't help but feel caged in by the way everyone was sitting. She wondered if they meant it that way.

Steve stared at her, expecting something from her. Thankfully, Gamora spoke up.

"Rose and I talked of Gallifrey and of the Tardis," Rocket gave a low whistle, "I have reason to believe that perhaps the Time Vortex that she had believed was removed wasn't fully-"

Tony interrupted, looking at Rose, "Oh. Does she mean the story about you bein' Bad Wolf and defeating the Daleks?"

Gamora and Drax froze, their mouths dropped open. Steve looked at them, confused. Quill shifted awkwardly. Rocket nearly dropped whatever gun he was making. Even Loki and Thor looked a little shocked.

"I am Groot?" _The Bad Wolf?_ He whispered.

Personally, Rose had no idea what was happening. She barely remembered anything about what had happened that day, as she had told Gamora only minutes before. And then Rose remembered the stories her Doctor would whisper to the people they would try to save, whenever something would happen and someone demanded a name her Doctor would whisper something Rose couldn't hear, and they would look up at her in awe, before they ran off to spread the news. She would pester him about what he had said, he would simply grin at her before running off, his trench coat billowing out behind him as he ran into the Tardis, trying to distract Rose with something new. And when she finally full blown confronted him about it, he had told her he was sick, dying really. She was too concerned with his failing health to worry about whatever her Doctor told them.

"What? It's just a thing me and the Doctor used to find each other. I don't get what the big deal is." Rose's embarrassed grin was fading, and she was simply looking at the shocked faces of everyone who recognized the name Bad Wolf.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Loki asked, shocked. For once even Tony had stopped moving, sensing the mood. She wondered if Tony felt overwhelmed by the emotions or if it were just instinct holding him still.

"Well if I knew your eyes were goin' to fall out of your sockets I would have told ya sooner." Rose replied.

"My eyes will not fall out." Drax stated. "I am simply shocked I am in the presence of the Bad Wolf."

Stark laughed at that, but easily covered it up as a cough, nestling his face into the sleeve of Steve's grey hoodie. Darcy frowned, whispering something in Jane's ear. Jane frowned and asked Thor. Rose couldn't hear, she was too busy having a stare down with Loki. Clint shifted the edge of Thor's chair back and forth, asking something. Rose couldn't hear what, she realized her ears were ringing. Loki wiggled his eyebrows at her, and she realized that they were still staring at each other, so she grinned at him, her tounge poking out between her teeth. She wondered exactly what was happening and why Bad Wolf was such a big deal. She hadn't used it since she was universe hopping, and why her Doctor brought it up then... Oh no.

Steve raised a hand to his face, looking like he was coughing, trying to get attention back to him and off of Rose. She liked him even more now. His mouth was moving and the ringing in her ears finally faded out right after he finished speaking, so she completely missed what he said. She could probably catch up, if she listened to what everyone else said.

"Bad Wolf," Gamora started. Rose jumped a little, wondering if Gamora noticed she wasn't paying any attention. "How would we meet this Doctor?"

Rose frowned, standing up and lifting Tony on to her shoulders. "My name's Rose. Not Bad Wolf. They're just words scattered across the universe. I could have picked anything." But for some reason she had decided on Bad Wolf during her hyped up Heart of the Tardis moment, she wondered why, if it was the Tardis, who saw the future and decided Bad Wolf was the best words or if it was Rose, picking the story because she loved Little Red Riding Hood when she was little. She was starting to wonder.

"He's in a different universe." Rose said, she walked out of the circle, feeling trapped. Everyone's eyes followed her but she didn't look back, grabbing a cup from the first cabinet she looked in(lucky guess?). "It's closed off. No more cracks left. The weakest point was Bad Wolf bay up in Norway."

Gamora nodded, Rose wasn't sure how she knew that given her back was turned.

"You're nervous, Rose. Why? They want to help." Tony whispered in her ear, his voice low as the others began talking and drowning them out.

Rose was spared from having to explain her feelings when Jane stood up. "No way are we getting back the Aether. It might not even work!"

"If Rose, according to legend has the Time Stone inside her, then we need this Doctor's help." Gamora reasoned with Jane. Rose pretended to busy herself with the water, even though she was listening in. They'd be stupid to think she wasn't. She wasn't quite sure how everything had jumped so suddenly. Gamora lowered her voice. "Thanos needs all the Stones to take over the Galaxy, if we can at least seal her away somewhere, then Thanos won't have control of everything."

Rose's mouth dropped and Tony squeezed his arms around Rose's neck, holding on tight, scared they would take him away from her. Rose turned the facuet off, taking a sip of her cup before dumping the rest out in the sink, she felt to sick to drink any else. Perhaps Loki was wrong in saying that Gamora and Nebula weren't crafty in ways that didn't involve killing. Because Gamora had Rose believing that she cared for her on the balcony. Of course, Rose hadn't told Gamora anything about the Bad Wolf. What had her Doctor told everyone? If she let Loki come home with her, she would make him tell her the story.

"We're not locking her away." Loki said, his voice ice cold. Rose pretending to talk to Tony about something that happened at school. He gladly went along with it, telling her about John, Danny and Sam, who were some of the coolest, but strangest kids in the school. Rose really loved her little brother for going with the flow so easily.

Natasha blinked at Rose, her eyes following her every step she took. Clint rolled over on the blankets he had been sitting on, covering his face and moaning about how tired he was. Natasha reached over and kicked him, he yelped and sat up straight, the blankets falling around him. Steve rolled his eyes, and Rose was pretty sure he was going to apologize to the Guardians, but then he saw Quill pinning Rocket to the couch, angrily whispering something. Groot's branch/arm reached down and lifted Quill into the air, and then turning him slightly so he was sitting up. Quill rolled his eyes and Rocket stuck his tounge out at him. Steve quickly looked down at Stark, who was playing on his tablet. Rose started to wonder if they had been doing this the entire time, she wasn't looking back at them, maybe she was wrong?

"The Time Stone," Rose asked, "what exactly does it do if it's inside someone?"

"The stones rip people apart. I mean it should have killed us when I picked up the Orb. I don't think anyone really knows how the Time Stone is inside you. Can you use it? Like when Ronan had the Orb, he used a staff to control it, but can't you use your mind?" Quill asked, pushing his hand down on Rocket's face and grinning at Rose.

"The Aether, isn't that the Reality Stone? That could, maybe, break a hole in the universe to get to other ones without everything collapsing." Rose looked at Thor as she said this, trying to keep her eye on Jane. See if she said anything like she did before. Tony crawled over to Rose, climbing up on her back.

"You're nervous, Rose. Why?" Tony whispered in her ear. Rose frowned. He had just said that to her moments prior. Of course she was nervous, they wanted to lock her somewhere else.

"No way are we getting the Aether!" Jane said, jumping up from her chair. "It might not even work."

"If Rose, according to legend has the Time Stone inside her, then we need this Doctor's help." Gamora reasoned, moving from where she stood at the back of the couch and sitting next to Rocket. "Thanos needs all the Stones to take over the Galaxy, if we can at least seal her away somewhere, then Thanos won't have control of everything."

Rose's mouth dropped. Why were they repeated all of this?

"We're not locking her away." Loki said, his tone ice cold. Rose stood up and Tony wrapped his arms around her, squeezing tightly, trying not to let go. She brushed him off, setting him down on the couch next to Loki. And then Rose blinked, everyone was back to their original spots and began repeating the same dialogue. They acted like Rose was there, saying her parts. She stood up, silently edging her way past Stark, who's legs were stretched across the floor. She went over to the glass balcony, staring down at the cars below, the same ten cars waiting for the light to change and when it did they would drive off, the same cars taking their place. Rose blinked, staring down at her hands in confusion.

She walked back into the room, they were still repeating the same exact things over and over again. She went back to her spot next to Loki, Tony climbed back around her neck, whispering the same thing over and over again. What the hell? She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, she had been through stranger things before. But this time she was on her own, no one else seemed to be having the same experience as Rose. She turned around, staring at Loki, whose eyes were blank as he started at Gamora, as he recited his line. He would turn his head to look away in a moment. She wasn't sure if she thought it would help, but the next time it repeated and he began to turn his head away, she slapped him, her hand hurt from the impact but it wasn't broken like it would have been otherwise. Loki raised a hand to his face, and he stared at her, his mouth opened in surprise.

"Are you upset with me for defending you?" He asked. Everyone fell silent. Rose laughed, falling into Loki's shirt with a siigh of relief. "Are you alright?" He asked, patting her back awkwardly as if to comfort her. Rose sat up, grinning as she explained herself.


	5. Chapter 5

In the end they, much to Jane's anger, decided sending Thor and whoever else wanted to go to Knowhere to retrieve the Reality Gem. They decided Rose would stay here, because the less people who knew she was the Bad Wolf the better. Rose had asked and no one bothered to tell her the story, simply going on with their plans. Loki leaned forwards, whispering in her ear that he'd tell it to her later. She smiled at him, at least someone wasn't going to talk about her behind her back.

Tony was on her back as they were once again on this gravel roof, in the daylight Rose noticed that there was a lot of Jane's equipment scattered around, and even some scorch marks on the ground. She figured that was from the Bifrost. Rose wanted to go, if only to experience the Bifrost, but Loki promised that when all was well he would get her a free trip to anywhere as a thank you. He stood next to her, they were leaning against each other as they watched Thor, Jane, Stark (in his Iron Man suit), Quill, Groot and Rocket prepare to leave. Thor looked at the sky, raising his hammer.

"There is no need for him to do that. Heimdall is always aware when one needs to use it," Loki whispered in her ear, causing Rose to smile.

Darcy rushed around, manning the equipment to monitor everything because that's what Jane needed her to do. Meanwhile she was complaining about how Jane and Thor promised her a trip on the Bifrost after she missed all the fun of seeing Asgard the last time. Loki rolled his eyes and sighed deeply. Gamora stared at Quill, she was leaning against their ship. Which was still invisible, so it looked she was balancing on one foot. Natasha and Clint were standing next to each other, and to Rose's surprise, the two spies were holding hands, she would have thought they wouldn't want to reveal that they cared about each in front of Loki. Who they still obviously hated. Steve was standing just outside of the marks, whispering something to Stark. They leaned forwards, each on their side of the scorch marks, and kissed. Rose looked away, smiling slightly at how cute they were. Quill then seemed to notice the shield Steve had on his back and realized that he was Captain America. He covered his mouth excitedly with his hands as he mouthed that it was Captain America to Gamora. Light burst out of the sky and Steve stepped back, breaking his kiss with Stark, he had a goofy grin on his face which quickly changed to worried. It was beautiful, Rose thought. The colors were rainbow and it seemed to lift them off the ground and then in an instant they were gone.

"Damn it!" Darcy shouted as she pressed a button. "I wasn't ready yet!"

Clint coughed loudly, rolling his eyes as he placed a hand on Darcy's back, escorting her away from the equipment that she was about to break by kicking it. Natasha stepped towards Drax, about to ask him something before thinking better of it and turning away. She stared at Rose, Loki and Tony for the longest time. Tony raised his hand and waved at Natasha with a big goofy grin on his face.

"She seems jealous." Tony whispered, he slide off Rose's back and practically skipped over to Natasha and began chatting her ear off.

Gamora was watching everyone silently, her face impassive, Rose wished Tony was still here so she knew what Gamora was feeling. She debated aproaching her, but Gamora moved to the center of the roof, the wind blowing her hair from her face. Steve moved to stand next to her, he jerked his head to signal that Clint and Darcy needed to pay attention. Tony stopped midstence and stared at Natasha before he darted over to where the Bifrost was and began following the scorch marks.

"Rose, we should try and see how much of the Time Stone we can enable you to use." Gamora anounced.

In any movie or tv show this is where there would be a montage with cheesy music in the background. Tony holding up cards excitedly to see if his big sister could shoot lazers out of her eyes. Rose couldn't do that. To Gamora asking Rose to see if she could look into her timestream and see what Rose saw of Gamora's past. And then they tried it with Steve after she successfully managed it with Gamora (after like ten tries and forty minutes of awkward staring). With Steve it went faster, Rose could see his Sarah Rogers staring down at Steve, saying something that Rose couldn't hear. This was a different Steve than the one Rose was currently looking at a squawny Steve. He was coughing heavily and looked like he was only four or five. There was another boy with brown hair patting Steve's back, he looked like he was around seven. James Barnes, something told her, was arguing with Sarah about something, and Steve seemed really upset about it. There was a picture in the background, pinned up on the wall that was barely considered white. It was a drawing of Sarah. The eyes were uneven and the detail not exact, but it was still amazing.

Rose blinked, coming back to the present. Loki had his hand on Rose's back, staring at her worriedly. She wondered how long she had been out.

"There wasn't any sound." Rose said into the camera. Darcy had decided she wanted to video tape all of this, it could be really important for the future. Rose had a feeling it wasn't. "It was Steve who looked like he was five-ish with his Mother and a James? There wasn't any sound though it seemed like James and Sarah were arguing."

Steve smiled, running a hand through his hair. "I was seven. That was the only time I ever heard Ma raise her voice. It was because I had gotten into my first fight and Bucky was stupid enough to take the blame."

Natasha smiled at Steve, a real one not a smirk, and so did Clint, which was a little creepy. Steve must have thought so too because he shifted, trying to give a weak smile back. He also gave a thumbs up. Darcy burst out laughing as she nearly droped the camera, missing both Natasha and Clint's reactions to what Steve did.

"Try again," Gamora urged. She was awfully concerned about what Rose could or couldn't do with the stone. Rose wondered if she could weseal the Bad Wolf story out of her. "This time see if you can hear what they're saying.

So that's what Rose did.

Soon she could see someone's past just by glancing at someone. The one sign that indcated that's what she was doing, was her eyes turning gold. So when they tried it with her on the streets of London on random tourists or the like, she would wear sunglasses. It got to the point, where she could pick and choose what events she saw, instead of seeing everything condensed down into a minute. It was almost like the chapter titles of a book, listing out the events that would effect them. And then one time Rose ran through all that with a blue haired girl and it kept going, Rose could see through the girl's eyes that she would walk across the street, hugging her boyfriend and squealing. In a few weeks he would propose to her and she would say yes. A month after that they'd break up from the fight and the girl would move to New York City. Rose blinked, shaking her head. Trying to get out of what she saw. Loki placed a hand on her shoulder and Rose knew she was back to the present. There was the girl, darting across the street into her boyfriend's arms, he swung her around and she squealed. The couple walked towards Rose and she ducked her head.

"I saw that. He's gonna propose in a couple weeks." Rose whispered. Darcy was still filming her. Tony was clinging on to Rose's leg, giggling as he drew with chalk on the ground, always keeping one hand on Rose, scared she would simply disappear.

Gamora seemed impressed. It had been her, Rose, Loki, Tony and Darcy to come down to the street corner. Natasha, Clint and Drax stayed up stairs. Gamora had asked them to try and explain metaphors to him, saying that would make her life so much easier to not have to hear the bickering when Rocket or Peter made one she didn't understand. Rose doubted it would work, certain species stuck to their ways.

"Good. Perhaps try controlling the Blue-haired girl. Get her to come back, saying she dropped something." Gamora said. "That would help in the fight against Thanos."

Rose frowned, trying to get a connection with that girl again. She could still see her future, going to New York, and then it stopped suddenly. Rose couldn't figure out why. But she tried, reaching out and imagining the girl walking back, checking the sidewalk for the remains of something, before turning back and laughing with her boyfriend about her mistake. And then it happened, the blue-haired girl darted back, her converses pounding against the sidewalk as she looked around frantically. Her boyfriend followed, his hands in his pockets as he smiled gently at her and helped her look. Finally they gave up, going back the way they came from. The blue-haired girl smiled and waved at Tony as they walked by.

"They both seemed really, really confused about what was happening." Tony said to Rose, setting his chalk on the ground and standing up, clearly bored and ready to go back inside.

Gamora stared at Tony and Darcy had the camera pointed at him. "You both seem so too." He then gave them an angelic grin, grabbed Loki and Rose's hands and let them upstairs.

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><p><strong>Okay so this is really short and i've taken forever to update. I'm SO sorry about that. I've had some trouble with this story. I don't think at this point I'll be doing the crossovers with other fandoms since they'd be fillers and I haven't been in the mood to write them. I think the next chapter is insanely long so it may be broken apart.<strong>

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